Cybunny Down: Part Three

      We rolled up our sleeping bags and stuffed them into our bags. There weren't any stall open this early in the morning so we shared some fruit and bread we had packed in our backpacks.

      The walk back to dock four wasn't very long but a thick fog had rolled in and we couldn't see two feet in front of our faces.

      "Do you think this fog with lift soon?" I asked Frodin.

      He laughed and said, "I'm sure Mr. Jacob will intimidate the fog away." I giggled at that.

      Jacob was already on deck when we arrived at the dock. He must have woke up earlier than us.

      "Good morning!" Jacob called to us.

      "Morning," we called back.

      "You, boy, help me pull this anchor up and pull the sails down. We have good wind this morning," Jacob said and Frodin made his way over to help. We were sailing in thirty minutes.

      "Hand me the map, young lady." Jacob held his hand out to me and I dug between the pages of Cybunny Down.

      He barely looked at the map and just kept steering us in what I guess he knew was the right direction. He must have been there before.

      Frodin dozed off in a chair and I picked up where I left off in Karate for Beginners. It wasn't long before Jacob spoke to me.

      "They say only Cybunnies can find Cybunny Down. Do you think they will show themselves to your friend?"

      I had been wondering the same thing myself. The old blue Cybunny disappeared before I could ask him.

      "What do you know about Cybunny Down, Mr. Jacob?" I asked him.

      "Just Jacob, lassie. Not much. I only know the legends." He kept his gaze on the water. The fog had lifted a while ago. "There are hundreds of Cybunnies. The most beautiful in all of Neopia. I've been to the island several times to look for those Cybunnies but have never found them."

      "Why haven't you discouraged us from going then? If you have searched the island yourself why are you taking us?" I was getting a little angry at this point.

      "You are a Cybunny. That is why I am taking you." Jacob heaved a sigh. "I believe you can find them, but I worry they won't let you find them with your friend hanging around."

      We landed on the shores of Cybunny Down a few hours later. This island was just as beautiful as Lutari Island but it felt different.

      "Do you feel that, Frodin?" I tore my eyes away from the island and looked at Frodin.

      "The island is beautiful but I don't feel any different." He looked over at me. "Are you okay, Meelu?" He put his paw on my shoulder to steady me. I didn't realize I was shaking.

      "I'm okay. Come on. Let's go." I grabbed his arm and practically dragged him off the boat. "We'll be back before sundown, Jacob," I called over my shoulder and gave a short wave.

      He gave a loud laugh and waved back. "Have fun, kids." He set to tending the boat.

      "Meelu, will you slow down?" Frodin said to me and dragged me to a stop. "We have hours to explore; what's the hurry?"

      I looked at him hard and told him the truth. "This is it, Frodin. I can feel it. I don't know how but I can feel the other Cybunnies here."

      He looked back at me calmly. "Okay," he said softly, "but where are they, Meelu?"

      "I don't know." I took his hand and started walking. "What are we going to do if we find them, Frodin? Do you really think neopets will just believe the word of a couple kids?"

      "I hope so. I was thinking about it and what if we wrote our own story. We can add it to all the other stories of Cybunny Down and maybe one day when we are old we can pass it on to another young neopet. Let them continue the adventure?" He looked down at me then. "Even if we don't find any Cybunnies, this has still been the best spring break ever. Hey, maybe we could go over to Mystery Island for a few days?" He looked ahead and helped me over a fallen branch. "Can you imagine the trouble we could cause there and in Geraptiku?" he said and held a heavy branch out of the way for me to walk under.

      "Sounds fun. Let's go then," I said.

      Frodin kept looking ahead, then said suddenly, "I think maybe we should split up, Meelu." He saw the shock in my eyes then immediately continued, "I heard you and Jacob talking about how the Cybunnies may not show themselves because I'm not a Cybunny."

      I could feel the embarrassment on my face. "Frodin, I don't want to split up and I thought you were asleep." I smacked his arm.

      "I just want us to have an adventure and if I have to, I will hide so you can be found," Frodin said to me.

      So we did split up, but not really. I walked ahead of him till I couldn't hear him any more and I hated it. This was our adventure, not mine. Then I saw a clearing up ahead. I decided I would stop there and wait for Frodin to meet me and we would figure out something else.

      I couldn't believe my eyes. There were hundreds of Cybunnies in the meadow.

      "Oh my," I whispered.

      The Cybunnies were all playing games or lying in the sun. They had the most beautiful coats I had ever seen. The darkest blue and the lightest pink and the purest white.

      One Cybunny looked up and saw me and a smile brightened her face. "We have company!" she called across the field. Then quickly hopped over to me before pulling me into a hug like she had known me forever. "Another Cybunny and so beautiful too."

      Frodin stumbled into me then and the Cybunnies all froze. They looked at him with something like fear in their eyes. He tried to step into the meadow with me but stopped.

      "He cannot be here," the Cybunny whispered to me.

      "Why not?" I asked her. Almost yelled. "Why can't he come?"

      "Look at him, dear," she said to me but looked at him sadly. "He isn't a Cybunny. He doesn't feel the magic of this island. Do you?"

      Frodin looked at me sadly. "That's what you were feeling, Meelu. The magic. That's why I wasn't feeling it." He held my gaze. "I literally can't step into the meadow. I'm sorry, Meelu. I don't belong here." He looked away. He was speaking like he was under a spell.

      "What's wrong?" I asked Frodin but it was the Cybunny who answered me.

      "He cannot step into the meadow because he isn't a Cybunny. When he walks away, he won't even remember seeing us."

      I was so sad. I looked at the Cybunny holding my paw in hers. She had done this before. She had turned away neopets that weren't Cybunnies before.

      "What makes this island magic?" I asked the Cybunny.

      She looked at Frodin before saying, "Let's go to a table, dear, and I'll explain but he can't come any further. I'm sorry."

      "I'll be back, Frodin. I promise," I told him.

      He took my other paw into his. "Are you sure?" He looked scared.

      "Yes, I'll be right back. I just want to talk to her. Ask her some questions." He let my paw slide from his and I hopped off with this strange Cybunny into a huge crowd of other strange Cybunnies.

      "Carry on, everyone," she called to the meadow of Cybunnies. "He will not come any closer." She gave a very pointed look to Frodin standing on the other side of the field.

      We stopped at a large table filled with juice and other beverages of every kind and she handed me a pink lemonade.

      "What makes this island magic?" I asked her again.

      She gave me a steady look and I knew that I would never win a staring contest with her.

      "A long time ago when Cybunnies were far fewer a young Cybunny was asked to do a quest for Taelia." She began the story. "The snow faerie saw that she was lonely. That she craved the companionship of others like her. So the snow faerie asked for an item in a cave. The Cybunny left and headed toward the cave that held the item the snow faerie was looking for." She paused and took a deep breath. "Inside that cave she found another Cybunny. He was young but he was hurt. He had the item that Taelia was looking for. Somehow she had the strength to carry both the item and the other Cybunny back across Terror Mountain to Taelia. Taelia thanked the young Cybunny for bringing her an item she had spent years looking for. Taelia asked her what she wanted in return. She asked for a home for Cybunnies. A place we could come to be together and be family and never feel lonely again." She sighed and smiled at me.

      "That is why this island is magic. I know you want to be here and you can stay here forever and be with us and we will be your family." She smiled at me and waved at the other Cybunnies milling around. Playing in the sun and eating food and loving each other like brothers and sisters.

      I looked at them all. So beautiful, and open, and friendly. Then my eyes fell on Frodin across the meadow. He had sat down at the tree line, not allowed to pass into the meadow. He looked so sad and so scared. I knew I could never stay here and leave him. He would find others friends and so would I but I couldn't leave that friendship I had with him behind.

      "I'm sorry, but no." I looked over at the Cybunny who told me the story, who lead me into the meadow. "I don't want to stay here. I have friends where I live and I can't leave them. Even for this magical island." I looked down at my paws and away from everything else. "I can't leave Frodin."

      I stood without looking back at the nice Cybunny and made my way back across the meadow to Frodin.

      "Hey," Frodin said to me. "How did it go?" He looked at me with curious eyes. "Where are we, Meelu?"

      "It was amazing," I said to him breathlessly. "I'll tell you about it on the boat."

      ************

      "So that's it? You're just going to write down your story and leave it in the book?" Frodin was giving me those eyes again. Those eyes that said he couldn't believe what I was talking about.

      We were back on the boat with Jacob who didn't believe a word I said. He just got the boat ready and started sailing us back to Lutari Island.

      "Yeah, I am. That's all it is, is an amazing story. One day another Cybunny will want to have an adventure with their best friend and I will give them the book and they can choose to find it, to stay there, to write about it. Whatever they want." I looked at him and he caved.

      "Fine." He huffed at me. "I wish I could remember.

      "But if I find something cool in Geraptiku, I'm telling everyone. You know, they say there is treasure somewhere in the Deserted Tomb." I could see the adventure in his eyes.

      "We have a few days before school starts," I said to him. "Let's go, Mr. Adventure."

The End